In the News

Last week, the Senate voted down an amendment to allow importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Most Republicans voted no; most Democrats voted yes. One who bucked his party, though, was New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D), the on-the-rise progressive who’s been mentioned as a possible contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. As a result, multiple…

For a fairly pedestrian vegetable, the potato has serious political sway in Washington. The National Potato Council, the industry’s advocate in Washington, has been making itself prominent across Washington in recent months, increasing its lobbying and campaign contributions to record numbers. It may be having an impact: With a Senate subcommittee markup coming later this month on…

With talks of soda taxes, GMO food labeling and now a potential FDA ban on trans fats, the food and beverage industry has been playing defense on several fronts. As the spotlight on what’s inside America’s food grows, so too does the industry’s political spending. In this week’s Politiquizz, we ask who in Congress the industry favors most.

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) are charged with trying to negotiate a compromise on the budget — no small task with the divide between the two parties these days. But we’ve found some common ground in their campaign finance history — answer our quiz and you could win a CRP prize!

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, let his money do the talking yesterday when it was announced he was buying the Washington Post for $250 million in cash, but offered little comment on what his plans for the newspaper are. Although he just bought one of the most prominent chroniclers of Washington politics, Bezos is not a man known for using his money to make political points.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation, which in November officially changed its name to the Livestrong Foundation, has spent over $2 million lobbying on funding for cancer research since 2001, and Boeing has some good friends in Washington help it battle the turbulence its currently experiencing.

Super PACs turn out to be good repositories for cash from family in Washington state and Florida. And in Indiana, the pro-Lugar super PAC’s biggest donor was a secretive groups that doesn’t disclose its donors.

Southeastern Michigan was the setting for the latest GOP presidential debate Wednesday night. The state’s significance as the symbolic center of the American auto industry and as an epicenter of a sluggish economic recovery were lost on no one, as the candidates debated bailouts to American car manufacturers and the economy at length.

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